Olin and The Moon || Listen || Watch

Not to sound too hayseed, but this album’s like beer. Sometimes you cry in it; sometime you raise your glass. The L.A. quintet with roots in Sun Valley, Idaho, have birthed a “No Depression”-worthy recording that, while hardly straying from country formula, tugs at your heart like a prairie sunset. The fivesome’s tidy arrangements help diminutive frontman David LaBrel’s crystalline vocals stand out — he doesn’t have to overplay wistful when he sings “It’s kinda hard to laugh right now / and drinkin’ makes me sick / ‘Cause the first time I saw you / I was in between sips.” – Buzz Bands

with:
Finn Riggins
Correatown || Listen
Jared Mees & The Grown Children

8:30pm / $7 / 21+

Slow Club || Watch

Simplicity is something Charles Watson and Rebecca Taylor clearly aren’t afraid of: the backbone of their debut album is a range of uncomplicated ideas executed brilliantly and brazenly by a band of two. A layer of witty and often nonsensical lyrics, and improvised percussive embellishments add the differentiation. Lo and behold, Yeah So is immediately more than one could expect given its authors’ unhelpful Nu-Folk tag.

Slow Club landed themselves the generic millstone through associations with the likes of Laura Marling and Tilly and the Wall, but the variety on offer here spans rockabilly on It Doesn’t Have To Be Beautiful, garage during Giving Up On Love and even a bit of shoegaze with the aptly titled I Was Unconscious, So It Was A Dream.

Watson displays an adaptable attitude to his guitar, and so while Come On Youth is tremulous and climatic, the gentle picking on Trophy Room is evocative of the late summer scene mentioned in its lyrics. – BBC

with:
Molecules International
Dazzle Ships

8:30pm / $8 advance, $10 day of show / 21+

Quasi || Listen

Quasi was formed in Portland OR in ‘93 by Sam Coomes & Janet Weiss. Their first album was self released in ‘95. They released three albums between ‘97 & ‘99 on Up Records. They moved to Touch & Go Records in ‘01 & released three albums with them, & additionally T&G reissued the first album. The band moved over to the Kill Rock Stars label in ‘09. Quasi albums are licensed by Domino Records in Europe & PVine Records in Japan. Throughout this time they have also toured &/or recorded either individually or collectively with SleaterKinney, Elliott Smith, Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks, Built to Spill, Bright Eyes, Heatmiser, the Go Betweens, Pink Mountain, Blues Goblins, The Takeovers, Jandek, numerous other less recognizable names. Prior to Quasi, SC was in the San Francisco band Donner Party (c.’83′88) & both SC & JW were in the Portland power trio Motorgoat (c.’90′92). Joanna Bolme (Jicks, The Minders, Calamity Jane) joined the band in c.’06. JW & JB are still members of Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks. SC runs the online branch of Exiled Records.

with:
Explode Into Colors
The French Semester || Listen

8:30pm / $12 advance, $14 day of show / 21+

The Fresh And Onlys

The Fresh & Onlys formed just last year in San Francisco, but they already boast more music to their name than most bands manage in twice that time. Over the course of a flurry of 7″s, a limited-edition cassette, and two full-length albums– last spring’s self-titled and now Grey-Eyed Girls– you can hear the sound of a young band busily honing in on what they’re good at. In case you weren’t tipped off by their almost distractingly evocative band name (should we be thinking of the Only Ones, or the Young Fresh Fellows?), the Fresh & Onlys traffic in jangly garage-pop, balancing psych-rock swagger with generous dollops of sweetly cockeyed melody. Their recordings are lovingly caked with crud, and their jams sometimes veer perilously close to derailing completely, which might seem to lump them in with other San Francisco psych revivalists like Thee Oh Sees and Sic Alps. But the Fresh & Onlys are set apart by an endearingly fussy devotion to songcraft and an understated and unfakeable weirdness. Their self-titled record was fairly straightforward but satisfying garage rock; Grey-Eyed Girls is stranger and more interesting, toning down the swagger and finding a sweet spot somewhere in between uptempo brashness and the quirky vulnerability of Beat Happening. – Pitchfork

with:
Wounded Lion
Surf City
Pivot || Listen

8:30pm / $8 advance, $10 day of show / 21+

Sabertooth Tiger || Listen

Congrats to Sabertooth Tiger (pictured above) on the release of their new record Set the Controls on vinyl, which they celebrated last night at Three Clubs with Holloys and Brother Reade . They sounded great. Be sure to pick up their new record asap. – LA-Underground

with:
Memory
Tremellow || Listen
Mumiy Troll || Listen

8:30pm / $5 / 21+

Moonrats

Moonrats is a project of Aska Matsumiya, whose work as vocalist to Aaron Rose’s instrumentation in the Sads is singular in its beauty, and whose new AsDSSka project with analog synthian David Scott Stone is exquisite. Moonrats writes sturdy guitar-drum-maraca songs with choruses and hooks. – LA Weekly

with:
Lawrence Arabia
Corridor
Skybombers || Listen

8:30pm / FREE / 21+

Efterklang || Listen || Watch || MP3

Efterklang inhabit another world, a world which, if the earth contained no human life, Parades would be fit to soundtrack. Their sound is not post-apocalyptic; it’s more symbolic of what came before than what will come after. It’s the sound of Mother Nature winding gradually along, where all is well in a land before civilisation, a time of passing serenity versus the bold and beautiful creation of life. All of the above was abundant in their magnum opus that is 2007’s Parades, a record which gained full marks on these very pages. – Drowned in Sound

with:
60 Watt Kid || Listen
SISU || Listen

8:30pm / $12 / 21+

Les Blanks || Listen || Watch

Los Angeles indie trio Les Blanks brings the bravado in droves with this most recent LP, Shoot the Horse, a sing/speak-styled effort vocally reminiscent of Fu Manchu’s Scott Hill or Frank Black of Pixies fame.

After trademark issues sprang up over the band’s original name, Muso, the group settled on naming itself after critically lauded documentary filmmaker Les Blank. Just as The New York Times described Blank as “a documentarian of folk cultures,” Shoot the Horse chronicles a seemingly Southerly-raised youth coming to understand and criticize the world, juxtaposing Bible Belt-bred piety and God-fearing reverence with implied hypocrisy. Most apparent in the Wurlitzer-driven “Grand Kickstand,” lead singer Joshua Caldwell croons, “Strong hand commands in holy land / Brain brand the kid with Judas tan.”

Nothing if not dynamic, the album’s sound runs the gamut — the tinny, rapid-fire thrashing coming from Caldwell’s Telecaster on “Starry Tilting Sizzle” invites the swagger and sway of hips and boots on crowded dance floors, while the ragtime-tinged piano found in “La Reina” calls for a laidback saloon-style listening session. – Performer Mag

with:
The Blasting Company || Listen
Francisco The Man

8:30pm / $5 / 21+

Wrong Way Driver || Watch

Wrong Way Driver is the brainchild of Brian Thornell. Who has been a member of Pine Marten, Earlimart and The Radar Bros. as well as produced/engineered records for bands like Silversun Pickups and The Breeders. The band has been compared to Summerteeth-era Wilco, Dinosaur Jr. and Pavement, however the band has a sound uniquely their own. They’ve been playing live shows, mostly around the L.A. area of Silver Lake, since summer ‘07 supporting other local and touring acts. Slowly gathering a following without a label, booking agent or management, just plain old fashioned DIY! Plans to release a full length linger in the near future…

with:
The Mallard
Names of Stars
OVIDEO

8:30pm / $5 / 21+

Family Album

Over the last few months front man Aaron Leigh and the original sibling crew, Sarah Rayne and Zach Leigh, have recruited Mack Slevin on guitar (Flashing Red Lights, Ghost Kings, Darci Cash, Hungry Birds), Mike Hendry on bass (Flashing Red Lights, Ghost Kings), and Jeff Baird on drums (Darci Cash) into the family. Not too shabby if I do say so myself.

I’ve been keeping tabs on the band’s progress over the last few months, and they have been locked away in rehearsals with this new arrangement with out letting out so much as a peep. Then just this past Monday Aaron and his finely groomed pack delivered an impressive array of songs they decided show off before they go into the studio. I was impressed with what the new members had to bring and the usage of the three guitars was well put together. It wasn’t cluttered and everything kept its unified sound with just the right kind of surprises along the way. – www.indieschmarm.com

with:
Haunted Tiger
Diving Bells

8:30pm / $5 / 21+

Shirley Rolls || Listen

with:
Worker Bee
Hexham Heads || Listen
George Glass

8:30pm / $5 / 21+

Music For Animals || Listen || Watch

Music for Animals is a fun and quirky San Francisco based band with amazing live sets that can’t help but inspire good times. Formed in 2004, the quartet has kept going at a fierce pace, releasing 2 EPs and one full length. Despite their several cross country tours, Music for Animals have made it a point to be a part of any local festival, helping their fan base grow with their energetic live performances that keep audiences on their toes. – Noise pop

8:30pm / 21+

Moonrats

Moonrats is a project of Aska Matsumiya, whose work as vocalist to Aaron Rose’s instrumentation in the Sads is singular in its beauty, and whose new AsDSSka project with analog synthian David Scott Stone is exquisite. Moonrats writes sturdy guitar-drum-maraca songs with choruses and hooks. – LA Weekly

with:
He’s My Brother, She’s My Sister
Halloween Swim Team || Listen

8:30pm / FREE / 21+

Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O. || Listen

The abridged version of the history of rock ‘n’ roll: America invented it, the British perfected it, the Japanese made it totally insane. Acid Mothers Temple, the Kawabata Makoto-helmed mountain of aural annihilation with the ever-changing lineup and name, is prepping a no-time-to-rest whirlwind tour of the United States. Gongs, long beards, skull foraging, and screeching shamanistic jams are the least of what you can expect from psych rock’s most immovable object. We’re all in big trouble. – Tiny Mix Tapes

with:
Over-Gain Optimal Death
Kill Kill Kill

8:30pm / $10 advance, $12 day of show / 21+

Garotas Suecas || Watch

Influenced by the soul and R&B masters of the sixties such as Otis Redding and Sly & the Family Stone, the band cannot deny their garage and psychedelic origins shown by the fuzz guitar sounds and crazy organ riffs,. Burning the dance floors throughout the country with their unique brand of rock, the Garotas Suecas are also true heirs of the unique tropical rock sounds created by the brazilian Tropicalia and Jovem Guarda movements of the sixties and early seventies. The untamed sounds of the Garotas Suecas can be heard in their first album “Dificil de Domar”, featuring nine explosive songs. Listen to the Garotas Suecas, they’ll make you dance.

with:
Think About Life || Listen
Bullied By Strings || Listen
Neverever

8:30pm / $8 advance, $10 day of show / 21+

Glacier Hiking || Listen || Watch

Glacier Hiking’s glossy, adrenaline-pumping pop-rock has been a work-in-progress for about four years now. Collaborators Ross Golan and Tommy Walter, when not busy on other projects (Golan as a songwriter-for-hire and Walter as a writer/producer), last year scrapped a plan to release an EP every three months in favor of finishing a full-length album with producer/mixer Neal Avron, who has worked with Yellowcard, Fall Out Boy, Say Anything and New Found Glory, among others.

“We feel we’ve finally found our voice,” says Golan, whose quartet also includes drummer Daniel James and bassist Yutaka Sao. “We’ve gone through a lot of phases. … But now we’ve worked hard at writing fresh music that we think represents who we are.” – Buzz Bands

8:30pm / $7 / 21+

Radar Bros || Listen || Watch || Mp3

On March 23, Radar Brothers will release The Illustrated Garden. Jim Putnam has found a new band of brothers in bass player Be Hussey and drummer Stevie Treichel, two partners who are equally passionate about the band.

The original line-up of Radar Brothers died on January 29th, 2008. The band was on stage at the Echo in Los Angeles playing the record release show for their new album, Auditorium. However, after a brief hiatus, the new configuration of Radar Brothers began with live performances. Jim, Be and Stevie built a tight bond while touring together in the US and Europe. Writing together was the natural next step and March 23rd, 2010 represents the culmination of the Radar Brothers rebirth.

The Illustrated Garden is the punchiest, most lyrically direct set of songs the band has released to date. The songs are unmistakably Radar Brothers, but the Treichel/Hussey rhythm section often pushes them in unexpected directions.

with:
Bell Gardens
Extra

8:30pm / $8 Advance, $10 Day of show / 21+

The Quarter After || Listen || Watch

If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably flipped through your mom’s photo albums feeling slight pangs of jealousy that you missed out on the era of the flower child, tambourines and LSD aplenty, when rock and roll had meaning. Don’t worry, The Quarter After feel your pain. The world that Rob and Dominic Campanella conjure up in their songs may be one that has come and gone, but who says we can’t pretend? To make the inevitable Byrds comparison may be a bit too obvious and overdone, but it is certainly accurate; the Campanella brothers’ warm vocal harmonies capture that 60s spirit beautifully. The sound is rounded out by percussionist Nelson Bragg, who is also a member of Brian Wilson’s band. Yep, Brian Wilson. That should show you the caliber of musicians we have here. And like any musical project that spawned from the Brian Jonestown Massacre, there is an ever-changing cast of musicians on stage, guest appearances, designated maraca shakers and tambourine rattlers. The communal spirit of the scene is what sets it apart and makes it thrive.

They kicked off their set with the song “Sanctuary” from their new album Changes Near; the song begins with a muddy bassline and then suddenly bursts into a melody that sounds positively soaked in sunshine. Other standout songs include “This Is How I Want To Know You”, saturated in their signature harmonies, and the other-worldly “Winter Song” which has an almost medieval or Celtic quality to it in its majestic flute solo and airy drumming.

While some 60s-influenced bands just blatantly rip off the classics to create watered-down Jefferson Airplane covers, The Quarter After builds upon their musical inspirations and infuse their songs with modern instrumentation and style. Songs for forward-thinking modern hippies, displaced in present-day Los Angeles. Check your shoes at the door (oh, if only we still could). – Nu Rave Brain Wave

with:
Federale (with members of Brian Jonestown Massacre)
Chief Nowhere

8:30pm / $8 / 21+

Neil Hamburger

If Neil Hamburger wasn’t the Funniest Man in America, why would the record company keep letting him make so many albums? Can’t answer that question, can you? No, it’s beyond dispute, he is the funniest. End of debate. Don’t even mention Jack Kevorkian, Neil is waaaaay, waaaaaaaay more side-splittingly hilarious, and he’s a much bigger bummer. And he’s got a million of ‘em – why, if one of his jokes falls flat or makes you groan or feel like gagging, or say the next 80 or 90 “gags” don’t exactly make you howl with uproarious laughter, just wait, because Neil will pounce with just a killer, killer line that will make you pee in your pants and nudge the guy next to you so he spills his drink (and when he hits you, that’ll be funny too). You’ll be glad you shelled out your money and chose to spend your time, on a Sunday night, no less, with America’s funny man, Neil Hamburger. – LA Weekly

8:30pm / $8 / 21+

Moonrats

Moonrats is a project of Aska Matsumiya, whose work as vocalist to Aaron Rose’s instrumentation in the Sads is singular in its beauty, and whose new AsDSSka project with analog synthian David Scott Stone is exquisite. Moonrats writes sturdy guitar-drum-maraca songs with choruses and hooks. – LA Weekly

with:
Warpaint
Pizza! || Listen
Dot Hacker

8:30pm / FREE / 21+

Hugh Cornwell || Listen || Watch

Hugh Cornwell completed his new album Hooverdam and first film Blueprint (a live studio performance of the film and interview) in Toerag Studios in 2008 with producer Liam Watson, best known for producing the White Stripes’ Elephant. Hooverdam is also available worldwide as a high-quality free download from Hugh’s own website and from www.ih52.com. This site is in ten languages (English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Farsi, Russian, Mandarin and Japanese), bringing Hugh’s music for free to most of the world’s population. The physical release is a triple-sleeved digipak featuring both album and film in one exclusive CD / DVD package. The album is also available on vinyl.

Hugh Cornwell is one of the UK’s finest song-writing talents and accomplished live performers. The original guitarist, singer and main songwriter in The Stranglers enjoyed massive UK and European success with ten hit albums and twenty-one top forty singles in the 17-year period he was in the band. The Stranglers etched themselves into the UK’s musical psyche with Peaches, No More Heroes, Golden Brown, Always The Sun, Grip, Nice N Sleazy, Duchess, Walk On By, Strange Little Girl and Skin Deep.

with:
KristeenYoung || Listen

8:30pm / $12 advance, $14 day of show / 21+

While their eponymous debut is excellent (#29 in the HearYa top 50 of 2007), it has a rough feel to it. Parker played most of the parts on the album himself and it came across as a one man project. In contrast, on Brain Cycles, Radio Moscow is a much more cohesive band. After listening to the album a few times, there are three things that really make this a more complete and balanced effort:

1. Parker’s vocals. On the first album, the vocals sometimes seemed as if they were just filling room between blistering guitar solos. Griggs is a guitar prodigy so it works, but on Brain Cycles, Parker is more confident as a front man and has some swagger.
2. The rhythm section is staggering. They move in lockstep with Parker while pulling off some of their own crazy shit. As I mentioned in my SXSW recap, Zach Anderson on bass has made tremendous strides and is every bit the equal to Parker.
3. On the debut, the songwriting was about showcasing Parker’s guitar work, which was fine by me. But Brain Cycles shows a more mature effort in his songwriting.

A couple of my favorites include “Broke Down” that has a Sabbath inspired riff and “No Good Woman,” complete with 90 second drum solo by Parker (it actually kind of works).

Radio Moscow is growing up, but they don’t abandon their blues-psychedelic sound that is sure to fuel bong circles in smoky dorm rooms all over college campuses. – HearYa

with:
Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound

8:30pm / $8 advance, $10 day of show / 21+

Retribution Gospel Choir || Listen || Mp3

In recent years, slowcore pioneers Low have forcefully shaken their defining somberness and dabbled in what actually might be called rock. So it wasn’t a total shock in 2008 when singer-guitarist Alan Sparhawk formed Retribution Gospel Choir — essentially Low minus angel-voiced wife/drummer Mimi Parker — to canoodle with more classic sounds. What’s more surprising is how naturally he’s made the shift. The band’s second album gets a bit hackneyed at times (bar-rockin’ trifle “White Wolf”), but Sparhawk generally seems re-energized, channeling Crazy Horse (“Poor Man’s Daughter”) and crafting the sort of genuinely rousing chorus (“Hide It Away”) that Low never would’ve indulged. – Spin

8:30pm / $8 advance, $10 day of show / 21+

Shearwater || Listen || MP3

Shearwater continue to explore the beauty, menace, and fragility of the natural world and that increasingly rare species, the indivisible album on The Golden Archipelago, the band’s most absorbing and accomplished work to date. The new record is the third panel of a triptych that includes 2006’s enigmatic Palo Santo and 2008’s acclaimed Rook, albums linked by themes of environmental and personal decay and humans’ impact on nature. In The Golden Archipelago, Shearwater turn to a portrait of life on islands a world of alternating lushness and austerity, numinous silences and sudden cataclysms, and the strange flowerings of plant, animal, and human life that only arise in isolation. These are intimate subjects for songwriter Jonathan Meiburg. As a researcher, he’s camped on islands at the edges of the world, including the Falklands, Tierra del Fuego, the Galapagos, Madagascar, Nunavut, and New Zealand’s Chatham Islands, and once spent a few surreal months in a remote Aboriginal settlement in northern Australia. Adding his grandfather’s WWII experiences as a radio operator in the South Pacific to these travels gave Meiburg plenty of fodder for the songs of The Golden Archipelago, in which he weaves these times and places together with common feelings of wonder, grief, and defiance.

8:30pm / $10 advance, $12 day of show / 21+